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System, method, and computer program product for patent-centric and group-oriented data processing5991751
Abstract
A system, method, and computer program product for processing data are described herein. The system maintains first databases of patents, and second databases of non-patent information of interest to a corporate entity. The system also maintains one or more groups. Each of the groups comprises any number of the patents from the first databases. The system, upon receiving appropriate operator commands, automatically processes the patents in one of the groups in conjunction with non-patent information from the second databases. Accordingly, the system performs patent-centric and group-oriented processing of data. A group can also include any number of non-patent documents. The groups may be product based, person based, corporate entity based, or user-defined. Other types of groups are also covered, such as temporary groups. The processing automatically performed by the system relates to (but is not limited to) patent mapping, document mapping, patent citation (both forward and backward), patent aging, patent bracketing/clustering (both forward and backward), inventor patent count, inventor employment information, and finance. Other functions are also covered.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method of processing data, comprising the steps of:
(1) accessing at least one first database of information representative of patents;
(2) accessing at least one second database of non-patent information;
(3) accessing one or more groups, each of said one or more groups comprising any number of said patents represented in said at least one first database; and
(4) automatically processing at least one of said patents in at least one of said one or more groups with consideration of non-patent information from said at least one second database.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the following steps that are performed before step (3):
(a) associating one of said one or more groups with a product;
(b) identifying patents from said at least one first database that map to said product; and
(c) adding said identified patents to said one of said one or more groups.
3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the steps of:
(d) determining relevance rankings for said identified patents based on a relation of said product to said corporate entity; and
(e) storing said relevance rankings in said at least one second database.
4. The method of claim 2, wherein said product is one that is being currently produced by said corporate entity, or is one that is being considered for future production by said corporate entity.
5. The method of claim 2, wherein step (a) comprises the step of:
associating said one of said one or more groups with a BOM (bill of materials) node in a BOM structure, wherein said BOM node represents an abstraction of said product.
6. The method of claim 2, wherein step (b) comprises the step of:
identifying patents from said at least one first database that map to said product, wherein said identified patents each includes at least one claim that potentially reads on said product.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein step (4) comprises the step of:
(a) automatically performing a patent mapping function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, wherein step (a) comprises the steps of:
(i) receiving from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
(ii) identifying patents that are within said identified group;
(iii) retrieving information pertaining to said identified patents from at least one of (I) said at least one first database and (II) said at least one second database; and
(iv) displaying said retrieved information.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein step (4) comprises the step of:
(a) automatically performing a backwards patent citation function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, wherein step (a) comprises the steps of:
(i) receiving from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
(ii) identifying first patents that are within said identified group;
(iii) identifying second patents that are cited in said first patents;
(iv) retrieving information pertaining to said second patents from at least one of (I) said at least one first database and (II) said at least one second database; and
(v) displaying said retrieved information.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein step (4) comprises the step of:
(a) automatically performing a forwards patent citation function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, wherein step (a) comprises the steps of:
(i) receiving from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
(ii) identifying first patents that are within said identified group;
(iii) identifying second patents that cite said first patents;
(iv) retrieving information pertaining to said second patents from at least one of (I) said at least one first database and (II) said at least one second database; and
(v) displaying said retrieved information.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
13. The method of claim 1, wherein step (4) comprises the step of:
(a) automatically performing a patent aging function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, wherein step (a) comprises the steps of:
(i) receiving from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
(ii) identifying patents that are within said identified group;
(iii) retrieving patent term expiration related information for said identified patents from said at least one first database; and
(iv) displaying patent aging information for said identified patents based on said retrieved patent term expiration related information.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
15. The method of claim 1, wherein step (4) comprises the step of:
(a) automatically performing a backwards patent bracketing/clustering function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, wherein step (a) comprises the steps of:
(i) receiving from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
(ii) identifying first patents that are within said identified group;
(iii) identifying second patents that are cited in said first patents;
(iv) retrieving ownership information pertaining to said first and second patents from said at least one second database; and
(v) displaying a connected graph of said first patents and said second patents, wherein said connected graph depicts said retrieved ownership information.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
17. The method of claim 1, wherein step (4) comprises the step of:
(a) automatically performing a forwards patent bracketing/clustering function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, wherein step (a) comprises the steps of:
(i) receiving from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
(ii) identifying first patents that are within said identified group;
(iii) identifying second patents that cite said first patents;
(iv) retrieving ownership information pertaining to said first and second patents from said at least one second database; and
(v) displaying a connected graph of said first patents and said second patents, wherein said connected graph depicts said retrieved ownership information.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
19. The method of claim 1, wherein step (4) comprises the step of:
(a) automatically performing an inventor patent count function with respect to said patents in one of said one or more groups, wherein step (a) comprises the steps of:
(i) receiving from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
(ii) identifying patents that are within said identified group;
(iii) retrieving inventorship information pertaining to said identified patents from said at least one second database;
(iv) determining top inventors of said identified patents based on said retrieved inventorship information; and
(v) displaying information pertinent to said top inventors.
20. The method of claim 19, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
21. The method of claim 1, wherein step (4) comprises the step of:
(a) automatically performing an inventor employment information function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, wherein step (a) comprises the steps of:
(i) receiving from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
(ii) identifying patents that are within said identified group;
(iii) identifying inventors of said identified patents by retrieving information pertaining to said identified patents from said at least one second database;
(iv) retrieving inventorship information pertaining to said identified inventors from said at least one second database; and
(v) displaying said retrieved inventorship information.
22. The method of claim 21, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
23. The method of claim 1, wherein step (4) comprises the step of:
(a) automatically performing a financial related function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, wherein step (a) comprises the steps of:
(i) receiving from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
(ii) identifying patents that are within said identified group;
(iii) retrieving financial information pertaining to said identified patents from said at least one second database; and
(iv) displaying said retrieved financial information.
24. The method of claim 1, further comprising the following steps that are performed before step (3):
(a) associating one of said one or more groups with a person;
(b) identifying patents from said at least one first database that name as an inventor said person; and
(c) adding said identified patents to said one of said one or more groups.
25. The method of claim 1, further comprising the following steps that are performed before step (3):
(a) associating one of said one or more groups with a second corporate entity;
(b) identifying patents from said at least one first database that are associated with said second corporate entity; and
(c) adding said identified patents to said one of said one or more groups.
26. The method of claim 25, wherein step (b) comprises the step of:
identifying patents from said at least one first database that are owned or licensed by said second corporate entity.
27. The system of claim 26, wherein one of said one or more groups are associated with a product, further comprising:
patent identification assisting means for assisting in identifying patents from said at least one first database that map to said product; and
means for adding said identified patents to said one of said one or more groups.
28. The system of claim 27, further comprising:
means for assisting in determining relevance rankings for said identified patents based on a relation of said product to said corporate entity; and
means for storing said relevance rankings in said at least one second database.
29. The system of claim 27, wherein said product is one that is being currently produced by said corporate entity, or is one that is being considered for future production by said corporate entity.
30. The system of claim 27, wherein said one of said one or more groups is associated with a BOM (bill of materials) node in a BOM structure, wherein said BOM node represents an abstraction of said product.
31. The system of claim 27, wherein said patent identification assisting means comprises:
means for assisting in identifying patents from said at least one first database that map to said product, wherein said identified patents each includes at least one claim that potentially reads on said product.
32. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one first database of patents includes patent bibliographic information.
33. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of said one or more groups are hierarchically structured having any number of parent and child groups.
34. The method of claim 33, further comprising the step of:
modifying the hierarchical structure of said one or more of said one or more groups.
35. The method of claim 1, wherein said one or more groups include at least one predefined group.
36. The method of claim 35, wherein said predefined group is a BOM (bill of materials) group, a corporate entity group, or an inventor group.
37. The method of claim 1, wherein said one or more groups include at least one user-defined group.
38. The method of claim 37, further comprising the step of:
replacing said user-defined group with a new predefined group once attributes and functions of said user-defined group become well defined.
39. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:
(5) automatically creating a new temporary group during processing of a command.
40. The method of claim 39, further comprising the step of:
(6) converting said new temporary group to a permanent group.
41. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of said one or more groups is associated with one or more of the following criteria: a product, a group of products, one or more technologies, one or more field of uses, one or more product applications, one or more processes, one or more product-by-processes, one or more prior art references, one or more prior art citations, one or more citing patents, frequency of prior art citations, one or more patent classes, one or more patent subclasses, one or more related patent applications, one or more related issued patents, one or more corresponding foreign patent applications, one or more corresponding foreign issued patents, one or more patent application filing dates, one or more patent issue dates, one or more patent claims, one or more pending patent application claims, one or more issued patent claims, one or more patentees, one or more inventors, one or more authors, one or more patent assignments, one or more patent application assignments, one or more assignors, one or more assignees, one or more licensors, one or more licensees, one or more license agreements, one or more competitors, one or more infringers, one or more litigations, one or more litigation parties, one or more patent annuity payment due dates, one or more patent maintenance payment due dates, one or more bill of materials, sales data, one or more publications, one or more product trademarks, one or more trademark licenses, one or more service marks, one or more service mark licenses, one or more copyrights, one or more copyright licenses, one or more trade secrets, one or more trade secret licenses, know-how, one or more know-how licenses, one or more mergers, one or more acquisitions, one or more transfers of ownership, one or more corporate entities, and one or more transfers of licenses.
42. The method of claim 1, wherein step (4) comprises the step of:
automatically processing at least one of said patents in at least one of said one or more groups with consideration of non-patent information from said at least one second database and related to said at least one of said one or more groups.
43. A system of processing data, comprising:
means for accessing at least one first database of information representative of patents;
means for accessing at least one second database of non-patent information;
group accessing means for accessing one or more groups, each of said one or more groups comprising any number of said patents represented in said at least one first database; and
processing means for automatically processing at least one of said patents in at least one of said one or more groups with consideration of non-patent information from said at least one second database.
44. The system of claim 43, wherein said processing means comprises:
a patent mapping module to automatically perform a patent mapping function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, said patent mapping module comprising:
means for receiving from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
means for identifying patents that are within said identified group;
means for retrieving information pertaining to said identified patents from at least one of (I) said at least one first database and (II) said at least one second database; and
means for displaying said retrieved information.
45. The system of claim 44, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
46. The system of claim 43, wherein said processing means comprises:
a patent citation module to automatically perform a backwards patent citation function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, said patent citation module comprising:
means for receiving from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
means for identifying first patents that are within said identified group;
means for identifying second patents that are cited in said first patents;
means for retrieving information pertaining to said second patents from at least one of (I) said at least one first database and (II) said at least one second database; and
means for displaying said retrieved information.
47. The system of claim 46, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
48. The system of claim 43, wherein said processing means comprises:
a patent citation module to automatically perform a forwards patent citation function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, said patent citation module comprising:
means for receiving from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
means for identifying first patents that are within said identified group;
means for identifying second patents that cite said first patents;
means for retrieving information pertaining to said second patents from at least one of (I) said at least one first database and (II) said at least one second database; and
means for displaying said retrieved information.
49. The system of claim 48, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
50. The system of claim 43, wherein said processing means comprises:
a patent aging module to automatically perform a patent aging function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, said patent aging module comprising:
means for receiving from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
means for identifying patents that are within said identified group;
means for retrieving patent term expiration related information for said identified patents from said at least one first database; and
means for displaying patent aging information for said identified patents based on said retrieved patent term expiration related information.
51. The system of claim 50, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
52. The system of claim 43, wherein said processing means comprises:
a patent bracketing/clustering module to automatically perform a backwards patent bracketing/clustering function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, said patent bracketing/clustering module comprising:
means for receiving from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
means for identifying first patents that are within said identified group;
means for identifying second patents that are cited in said first patents;
means for retrieving ownership information pertaining to said first and second patents from said at least one second database; and
means for displaying a connected graph of said first patents and said second patents, wherein said connected graph depicts said retrieved ownership information.
53. The system of claim 52, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
54. The system of claim 43, wherein said processing means comprises:
a patent bracketing/clustering module to automatically perform a forwards patent bracketing/clustering function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, said patent bracketing/clustering module comprising:
means for receiving from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
means for identifying first patents that are within said identified group;
means for identifying second patents that cite said first patents;
means for retrieving ownership information pertaining to said first and second patents from said at least one second database; and
means for displaying a connected graph of said first patents and said second patents, wherein said connected graph depicts said retrieved ownership information.
55. The system of claim 54, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
56. The system of claim 43, wherein said processing means comprises:
an inventor patent count module to automatically perform an inventor patent count function with respect to said patents in one of said one or more groups, said inventor patent count module comprising:
means for receiving from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
means for identifying patents that are within said identified group;
means for retrieving inventorship information pertaining to said identified patents from said at least one second database;
means for determining top inventors of said identified patents based on said retrieved inventorship information; and
means for displaying information pertinent to said top inventors.
57. The system of claim 56, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
58. The system of claim 43, wherein said processing means comprises:
an inventor employment information module to automatically perform an inventor employment information function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, said inventor employment information module comprising:
means for receiving from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
means for identifying patents that are within said identified group;
means for identifying inventors of said identified patents by retrieving information pertaining to said identified patents from said at least one second database;
means for retrieving inventorship information pertaining to said identified inventors from said at least one second database; and
means for displaying said retrieved inventorship information.
59. The system of claim 58, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
60. The system of claim 43, wherein said processing means comprises:
a financial module to automatically perform a financial related function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, said financial module comprising:
means for receiving from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
means for identifying patents that are within said identified group;
means for retrieving financial information pertaining to said identified patents from said at least one second database; and
means for displaying said retrieved financial information.
61. The system of claim 43, wherein one of said one or more groups is associated with a person, further comprising:
means for assisting in identifying patents from said at least one first database that name as an inventor said person; and
means for adding said identified patents to said one of said one or more groups.
62. The system of claim 43, wherein one of said one or more groups is associated with a second corporate entity, further comprising:
means for assisting in identifying patents from said at least one first database that are associated with said second corporate entity; and
means for adding said identified patents to said one of said one or more groups.
63. The system of claim 62, wherein said identified patents are owned or licensed by said second corporate entity.
64. The system of claim 43, wherein said at least one first database of patents includes patent bibliographic information.
65. The system of claim 43, wherein one or more of said one or more groups are hierarchically structured having any number of parent and child groups.
66. The system of claim 65, further comprising:
means for modifying the hierarchical structure of said one or more of said one or more groups.
67. The system of claim 43, wherein said one or more groups include at least one predefined group.
68. The system of claim 67, wherein said predefined group is a BOM (bill of materials) group, a corporate entity group, or an inventor group.
69. The system of claim 43, wherein said one or more groups include at least one user-defined group.
70. The system of claim 69, further comprising:
means for replacing said user-defined group with a new predefined group once attributes and functions of said user-defined group become well defined.
71. The system of claim 43, further comprising:
means for automatically creating a new temporary group during processing of a command.
72. The system of claim 71, further comprising:
means for converting said new temporary group to a permanent group.
73. The system of claim 43, wherein one or more of said one or more groups is associated with one or more of the following criteria: a product, a group of products, one or more technologies, one or more field of uses, one or more product applications, one or more processes, one or more product-by-processes, one or more prior art references, one or more prior art citations, one or more citing patents, frequency of prior art citations, one or more patent classes, one or more patent subclasses, one or more related patent applications, one or more related issued patents, one or more corresponding foreign patent applications, one or more corresponding foreign issued patents, one or more patent application filing dates, one or more patent issue dates, one or more patent claims, one or more pending patent application claims, one or more issued patent claims, one or more patentees, one or more inventors, one or more authors, one or more patent assignments, one or more patent application assignments, one or more assignors, one or more assignees, one or more licensors, one or more licensees, one or more license agreements, one or more competitors, one or more infringers, one or more litigations, one or more litigation parties, one or more patent annuity payment due dates, one or more patent maintenance payment due dates, one or more bill of materials, sales data, one or more publications, one or more product trademarks, one or more trademark licenses, one or more service marks, one or more service mark licenses, one or more copyrights, one or more copyright licenses, one or more trade secrets, one or more trade secret licenses, know-how, one or more know-how licenses, one or more mergers, one or more acquisitions, one or more transfers of ownership, one or more corporate entities, and one or more transfers of licenses.
74. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer program logic stored therein, said computer program logic comprising:
means for enabling a computer to access at least one first database of patents;
means for enabling the computer to access at least one second database of non-patent information of interest to a corporate entity;
group maintaining means for enabling the computer to maintain one or more groups, each of said one or more groups comprising any number of said patents from said at least one first database; and
processing means for enabling the computer to automatically process said patents in one of said one or more groups in conjunction with non-patent information from said at least one second database.
75. The computer program product of claim 74, wherein one of said one or more groups are associated with a product, said computer program logic further comprising:
patent identification assisting means for enabling the computer to assist in identifying patents from said at least one first database that map to said product; and
means for enabling the computer to add said identified patents to said one of said one or more groups.
76. The computer program product of claim 75, said computer program logic further comprising:
means for enabling the computer to assist in determining relevance rankings for said identified patents based on a relation of said product to said corporate entity; and
means for enabling the computer to store said relevance rankings in said at least one second database.
77. The computer program product of claim 75, wherein said product is one that is being currently produced by said corporate entity, or is one that is being considered for future production by said corporate entity.
78. The computer program product of claim 75, wherein said one of said one or more groups is associated with a BOM (bill of materials) node in a BOM structure, wherein said BOM node represents an abstraction of said product.
79. The computer program product of claim 75, wherein said patent identification assisting means comprises:
means for enabling the computer to assist in identifying patents from said at least one first database that map to said product, wherein said identified patents each includes at least one claim that potentially reads on said product.
80. The computer program product of claim 74, wherein said processing means comprises:
a patent mapping module to enable the computer to automatically perform a patent mapping function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, said patent mapping module comprising:
means for enabling the computer to receive from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
means for enabling the computer to identify patents that are within said identified group;
means for enabling the computer to retrieve information pertaining to said identified patents from at least one of (I) said at least one first database and (II) said at least one second database; and
means for enabling the computer to display said retrieved information.
81. The computer program product of claim 80, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
82. The computer program product of claim 74, wherein said processing means comprises:
a patent citation module to enable the computer to automatically perform a backwards patent citation function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, said patent citation module comprising:
means for enabling the computer to receive from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
means for enabling the computer to identify first patents that are within said identified group;
means for enabling the computer to identify second patents that are cited in said first patents;
means for enabling the computer to retrieve information pertaining to said second patents from at least one of (I) said at least one first database and (II) said at least one second database; and
means for enabling the computer to display said retrieved information.
83. The computer program product of claim 82, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
84. The computer program product of claim 74, wherein said processing means comprises:
a patent citation module to enable the computer to automatically perform a forwards patent citation function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, said patent citation module comprising:
means for enabling the computer to receive from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
means for enabling the computer to identify first patents that are within said identified group;
means for enabling the computer to identify second patents that cite said first patents;
means for enabling the computer to retrieve information pertaining to said second patents from at least one of (I) said at least one first database and (II) said at least one second database; and
means for enabling the computer to display said retrieved information.
85. The computer program product of claim 84, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
86. The computer program product of claim 74, wherein said processing means comprises:
a patent aging module to enable the computer to automatically perform a patent aging function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, said patent aging module comprising:
means for enabling the computer to receive from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
means for enabling the computer to identify patents that are within said identified group;
means for enabling the computer to retrieve patent term expiration related information for said identified patents from said at least one first database; and
means for enabling the computer to display patent aging information for said identified patents based on said retrieved patent term expiration related information.
87. The computer program product of claim 86, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
88. The computer program product of claim 74, wherein said processing means comprises:
a patent bracketing/clustering module to enable the computer to automatically perform a backwards patent bracketing/clustering function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, said patent bracketing/clustering module comprising:
means for enabling the computer to receive from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
means for enabling the computer to identify first patents that are within said identified group;
means for enabling the computer to identify second patents that are cited in said first patents;
means for enabling the computer to retrieve ownership information pertaining to said first and second patents from said at least one second database; and
means for enabling the computer to display a connected graph of said first patents and said second patents, wherein said connected graph depicts said retrieved ownership information.
89. The computer program product of claim 88, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
90. The computer program product of claim 74, wherein said processing means comprises:
a patent bracketing/clustering module to enable the computer to automatically perform a forwards patent bracketing/clustering function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, said patent bracketing/clustering module comprising:
means for enabling the computer to receive from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
means for enabling the computer to identify first patents that are within said identified group;
means for enabling the computer to identify second patents that cite said first patents;
means for enabling the computer to retrieve ownership information pertaining to said first and second patents from said at least one second database; and
means for enabling the computer to display a connected graph of said first patents and said second patents, wherein said connected graph depicts said retrieved ownership information.
91. The computer program product of claim 90, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
92. The computer program product of claim 74, wherein said processing means comprises:
an inventor patent count module to enable the computer to automatically perform an inventor patent count function with respect to said patents in one of said one or more groups, said inventor patent count module comprising:
means for enabling the computer to receive from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
means for enabling the computer to identify patents that are within said identified group;
means for enabling the computer to retrieve inventorship information pertaining to said identified patents from said at least one second database;
means for enabling the computer to determine top inventors of said identified patents based on said retrieved inventorship information; and
means for enabling the computer to display information pertinent to said top inventors.
93. The computer program product of claim 92, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
94. The computer program product of claim 74, wherein said processing means comprises:
an inventor employment information module to enable the computer to automatically perform an inventor employment information function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, said inventor employment information module comprising:
means for enabling the computer to receive from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
means for enabling the computer to identify patents that are within said identified group;
means for enabling the computer to identify inventors of said identified patents by retrieving information pertaining to said identified patents from said at least one second database;
means for enabling the computer to retrieve inventorship information pertaining to said identified inventors from said at least one second database; and
means for enabling the computer to display said retrieved inventorship information.
95. The computer program product of claim 94, wherein said identified group is one of a BOM group, a corporate entity group, an inventor group, and a user-defined group.
96. The computer program product of claim 74, wherein said processing means comprises:
a financial module to enable the computer to automatically perform a financial related function with respect to patents in one of said one or more groups, said financial module comprising:
means for enabling the computer to receive from an operator information that identifies one of said one or more groups;
means for enabling the computer to identify patents that are within said identified group;
means for enabling the computer to retrieve financial information pertaining to said identified patents from said at least one second database; and
means for enabling the computer to display said retrieved financial information.
97. The computer program product of claim 74, wherein one of said one or more groups is associated with a person, said computer program logic further comprising:
means for enabling the computer to assist in identifying patents from said at least one first database that name as an inventor said person; and
means for enabling the computer to add said identified patents to said one of said one or more groups.
98. The computer program product of claim 74, wherein one of said one or more groups is associated with a second corporate entity, said computer program logic further comprising:
means for enabling the computer to assist in identifying patents from said at least one first database that are associated with said second corporate entity; and
means for enabling the computer to add said identified patents to said one of said one or more groups.
99. The computer program product of claim 98, wherein said identified patents are owned or licensed by said second corporate entity.
100. The computer program product of claim 74, wherein said at least one first database of patents includes patent bibliographic information.
101. The computer program product of claim 74, wherein one or more of said one or more groups are hierarchically structured having any number of parent and child groups.
102. The computer program product of claim 101, wherein said computer program logic further comprises:
means for enabling the computer to modify the hierarchical structure of said one or more of said one or more groups.
103. The computer program product of claim 74, wherein said one or more groups include at least one predefined group.
104. The computer program product of claim 103, wherein said predefined group is a BOM (bill of materials) group, a corporate entity group, or an inventor group.
105. The computer program product of claim 74, wherein said one or more groups include at least one user-defined group.
106. The computer program product of claim 105, wherein said computer program logic further comprises:
means for enabling the computer to replace said user-defined group with a new predefined group once attributes and functions of said user-defined group become well defined.
107. The computer program product of claim 74, wherein said computer program logic further comprises:
means for enabling the computer to automatically create a new temporary group during processing of a command.
108. The computer program product of claim 107, wherein said computer program logic further comprises:
means for enabling the computer to convert said new temporary group to a permanent group.
109. The computer program product of claim 74, wherein one or more of said one or more groups is associated with one or more of the following criteria: a product, a group of products, one or more technologies, one or more field of uses, one or more product applications, one or more processes, one or more product-by-processes, one or more prior art references, one or more prior art citations, one or more citing patents, frequency of prior art citations, one or more patent classes, one or more patent subclasses, one or more related patent applications, one or more related issued patents, one or more corresponding foreign patent applications, one or more corresponding foreign issued patents, one or more patent application filing dates, one or more patent issue dates, one or more patent claims, one or more pending patent application claims, one or more issued patent claims, one or more patentees, one or more inventors, one or more authors, one or more patent assignments, one or more patent application assignments, one or more assignors, one or more assignees, one or more licensors, one or more licensees, one or more license agreements, one or more competitors, one or more infringers, one or more litigations, one or more litigation parties, one or more patent annuity payment due dates, one or more patent maintenance payment due dates, one or more bill of materials, sales data, one or more publications, one or more product trademarks, one or more trademark licenses, one or more service marks, one or more service mark licenses, one or more copyrights, one or more copyright licenses, one or more trade secrets, one or more trade secret licenses, know-how, one or more know-how licenses, one or more mergers, one or more acquisitions, one or more transfers of ownership, one or more corporate entities, and one or more transfers of licenses.
110. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer program logic stored therein, said computer program logic comprising:
means for enabling a computer to access at least one first database of information representative of patents;
means for enabling the computer to access at least one second database of non-patent information;
group accessing means for enabling the computer to access one or more groups, each of said one or more groups comprising information pertaining to any number of patents represented in said at least one first database; and
processing means for enabling the computer to automatically process at least one patent in at least one of said one or more groups with consideration of non-patent information from said at least one second database.
111. A method of processing data, comprising the steps of:
(1) accessing at least one first database of information representative of patents;
(2) accessing at least one second database of non-patent information;
(3) accessing at least one group associated with non-patent criteria of interest to a user, said at least one group comprising one or more patents represented in said at least one first database that map to said non-patent criteria; and
(4) automatically processing at least one patent in said at least one group with consideration of non-patent information represented in said at least one second database.
112. The method of claim 111, wherein said at least one group includes at least one predefined group.
113. The method of claim 111, wherein said at least one group includes at least one user-defined group.
114. The method of claim 113, further comprising the step of:
replacing said user-defined group with a new predefined group once attributes and functions of said user-defined group become well defined.
115. The method of claim 111, further comprising the step of:
(5) automatically creating a new temporary group during processing of a command.
116. The method of claim 115, further comprising the step of:
(6) converting said new temporary group to a permanent group.
117. The method of claim 111, wherein one or more of said at least one group is associated with one or more of the following criteria: a product, a group of products, one or more technologies, one or more field of uses, one or more product applications, one or more processes, one or more product-by-processes, one or more prior art references, one or more prior art citations, one or more citing patents, frequency of prior art citations, one or more patent classes, one or more patent subclasses, one or more related patent applications, one or more related issued patents, one or more corresponding foreign patent applications, one or more corresponding foreign issued patents, one or more patent application filing dates, one or more patent issue dates, one or more patent claims, one or more pending patent application claims, one or more issued patent claims, one or more patentees, one or more inventors, one or more authors, one or more patent assignments, one or more patent application assignments, one or more assignors, one or more assignees, one or more licensors, one or more licensees, one or more license agreements, one or more competitors, one or more infringers, one or more litigations, one or more litigation parties, one or more patent annuity payment due dates, one or more patent maintenance payment due dates, one or more bill of materials, sales data, one or more publications, one or more product trademarks, one or more trademark licenses, one or more service marks, one or more service mark licenses, one or more copyrights, one or more copyright licenses, one or more trade secrets, one or more trade secret licenses, know-how, one or more know-how licenses, one or more mergers, one or more acquisitions, one or more transfers of ownership, one or more corporate entities, and one or more transfers of licenses.
118. A system for processing data, comprising:
means for accessing at least one first database of information representative of patents;
means for accessing at least one second database of non-patent information;
means for accessing at least one group associated with non-patent criteria of interest to a user, said at least one group comprising one or more patents represented in said at least one first database that map to said non-patent criteria; and
means for automatically processing at least one patent in said at least one group with consideration of non-patent information represented in said at least one second database.
119. The system claim 118, wherein said at least one group includes at least one predefined group.
120. The system of claim 118, wherein said at least one group includes at least one user-defined group.
121. The system of claim 120, further comprising:
means for replacing said user-defined group with a new predefined group once attributes and functions of said user-defined group become well defined.
122. The system of claim 118, further comprising:
means for automatically creating a new temporary group during processing of a command.
123. The system of claim 122, further comprising:
means for converting said new temporary group to a permanent group.
124. The system of claim 118, wherein one or more of said at least one group is associated with one or more of the following criteria: a product, a group of products, one or more technologies, one or more field of uses, one or more product applications, one or more processes, one or more product-by-processes, one or more prior art references, one or more prior art citations, one or more citing patents, frequency of prior art citations, one or more patent classes, one or more patent subclasses, one or more related patent applications, one or more related issued patents, one or more corresponding foreign patent applications, one or more corresponding foreign issued patents, one or more patent application filing dates, one or more patent issue dates, one or more patent claims, one or more pending patent application claims, one or more issued patent claims, one or more patentees, one or more inventors, one or more authors, one or more patent assignments, one or more patent application assignments, one or more assignors, one or more assignees, one or more licensors, one or more licensees, one or more license agreements, one or more competitors, one or more infringers, one or more litigations, one or more litigation parties, one or more patent annuity payment due dates, one or more patent maintenance payment due dates, one or more bill of materials, sales data, one or more publications, one or more product trademarks, one or more trademark licenses, one or more service marks, one or more service mark licenses, one or more copyrights, one or more copyright licenses, one or more trade secrets, one or more trade secret licenses, know-how, one or more know-how licenses, one or more mergers, one or more acquisitions, one or more transfers of ownership, one or more corporate entities, and one or more transfers of licenses.
125. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer program logic stored therein, said computer program logic comprising:
means for enabling a computer to access at least one first database of information representative of patents;
means for enabling a computer to access at least one second database of non-patent information;
means for enabling a computer to access at least one group associated with non-patent criteria of interest to a user, said at least one group comprising one or more patents represented in said at least one first database that map to said non-patent criteria; and
means for enabling a computer to automatically process at least one patent in said at least one group with consideration of non-patent information represented in said at least one second database.
126. The computer program product of claim 125, wherein said at least one group includes at least one predefined group.
127. The computer program product of claim 125, wherein said at least one group includes at least one user-defined group.
128. The computer program product of claim 127, wherein said computer program logic further comprises:
means for enabling a computer to replace said user-defined group with a new predefined group once attributes and functions of said user-defined group become well defined.
129. The computer program product of claim 125, wherein said computer program logic further comprises:
means for enabling a computer to automatically create a new temporary group during processing of a command.
130. The computer program product of claim 129, wherein said computer program logic further comprises:
means for enabling a computer to convert said new temporary group to a permanent group.
131. The computer program product of claim 125, wherein one or more of said at least one group is associated with one or more of the following criteria: a product, a group of products, one or more technologies, one or more field of uses, one or more product applications, one or more processes, one or more product-by-processes, one or more prior art references, one or more prior art citations, one or more citing patents, frequency of prior art citations, one or more patent classes, one or more patent subclasses, one or more related patent applications, one or more related issued patents, one or more corresponding foreign patent applications, one or more corresponding foreign issued patents, one or more patent application filing dates, one or more patent issue dates, one or more patent claims, one or more pending patent application claims, one or more issued patent claims, one or more patentees, one or more inventors, one or more authors, one or more patent assignments, one or more patent application assignments, one or more assignors, one or more assignees, one or more licensors, one or more licensees, one or more license agreements, one or more competitors, one or more infringers, one or more litigations, one or more litigation parties, one or more patent annuity payment due dates, one or more patent maintenance payment due dates, one or more bill of materials, sales data, one or more publications, one or more product trademarks, one or more trademark licenses, one or more service marks, one or more service mark licenses, one or more copyrights, one or more copyright licenses, one or more trade secrets, one or more trade secret licenses, know-how, one or more know-how licenses, one or more mergers, one or more acquisitions, one or more transfers of ownership, one or more corporate entities, and one or more transfers of licenses.
132. A method of processing data, comprising the steps of:
(1) accessing at least one first database of information representative of patents;
(2) accessing at least one second database of non-patent information;
(3) accessing at least one group associated with one or more of the following criteria: a product, a group of products, one or more technologies, one or more field of uses, one or more product applications, one or more processes, one or more product-by-processes, one or more prior art references, one or more prior art citations, one or more citing patents, frequency of prior art citations, one or more patent classes, one or more patent subclasses, one or more related patent applications, one or more related issued patents, one or more corresponding foreign patent applications, one or more corresponding foreign issued patents, one or more patent application filing dates, one or more patent issue dates, one or more patent claims, one or more pending patent application claims, one or more issued patent claims, one or more patentees, one or more inventors, one or more authors, one or more patent assignments, one or more patent application assignments, one or more assignors, one or more assignees, one or more licensors, one or more licensees, one or more license agreements, one or more competitors, one or more infringers, one or more litigations, one or more litigation parties, one or more patent annuity payment due dates, one or more patent maintenance payment due dates, one or more bill of materials, sales data, one or more publications, one or more product trademarks, one or more trademark licenses, one or more service marks, one or more service mark licenses, one or more copyrights, one or more copyright licenses, one or more trade secrets, one or more trade secret licenses, know-how, one or more know-how licenses, one or more mergers, one or more acquisitions, one or more transfers of ownership, one or more corporate entities, and one or more transfers of licenses;
(4) identifying patents represented in said at least one first database that map to said one or more criteria: a product, a group of products, one or more technologies, one or more field of uses, one or more product applications, one or more processes, one or more product-by-processes, one or more prior art references, one or more prior art citations, one or more citing patents, frequency of prior art citations, one or more patent classes, one or more patent subclasses, one or more related patent applications, one or more related issued patents, one or more corresponding foreign patent applications, one or more corresponding foreign issued patents, one or more patent application filing dates, one or more patent issue dates, one or more patent claims, one or more pending patent application claims, one or more issued patent claims, one or more patentees, one or more inventors, one or more authors, one or more patent assignments, one or more patent application assignments, one or more assignors, one or more assignees, one or more licensors, one or more licensees, one or more license agreements, one or more competitors, one or more infringers, one or more litigations, one or more litigation parties, one or more patent annuity payment due dates, one or more patent maintenance payment due dates, one or more bill of materials, sales data, one or more publications, one or more product trademarks, one or more trademark licenses, one or more service marks, one or more service mark licenses, one or more copyrights, one or more copyright licenses, one or more trade secrets, one or more trade secret licenses, know-how, one or more know-how licenses, one or more mergers, one or more acquisitions, one or more transfers of ownership, one or more corporate entities, and one or more transfers of licenses;
(5) adding said identified patents to said at least one group; and
(6) automatically processing at least one patent in said at least one group with consideration of non-patent information from said at least one second database.
133. A system for processing data, comprising:
means for accessing at least one first database of information representative of patents;
means for accessing at least one second database of non-patent information;
means for accessing at least one group associated with one or more of the following criteria: a product, a group of products, one or more technologies, one or more field of uses, one or more product applications, one or more processes, one or more product-by-processes, one or more prior art references, one or more prior art citations, one or more citing patents, frequency of prior art citations, one or more patent classes, one or more patent subclasses, one or more related patent applications, one or more related issued patents, one or more corresponding foreign patent applications, one or more corresponding foreign issued patents, one or more patent application filing dates, one or more patent issue dates, one or more patent claims, one or more pending patent application claims, one or more issued patent claims, one or more patentees, one or more inventors, one or more authors, one or more patent assignments, one or more patent application assignments, one or more assignors, one or more assignees, one or more licensors, one or more licensees, one or more license agreements, one or more competitors, one or more infringers, one or more litigations, one or more litigation parties, one or more patent annuity payment due dates, one or more patent maintenance payment due dates, one or more bill of materials, sales data, one or more publications, one or more product trademarks, one or more trademark licenses, one or more service marks, one or more service mark licenses, one or more copyrights, one or more copyright licenses, one or more trade secrets, one or more trade secret licenses, know-how, one or more know-how licenses, one or more mergers, one or more acquisitions, one or more transfers of ownership, one or more corporate entities, and one or more transfers of licenses;
means for identifying patents represented in said at least one first database that map to said one or more criteria: a product, a group of products, one or more technologies, one or more field of uses, one or more product applications, one or more processes, one or more product-by-processes, one or more prior art references, one or more prior art citations, one or more citing patents, frequency of prior art citations, one or more patent classes, one or more patent subclasses, one or more related patent applications, one or more related issued patents, one or more corresponding foreign patent applications, one or more corresponding foreign issued patents, one or more patent application filing dates, one or more patent issue dates, one or more patent claims, one or more pending patent application claims, one or more issued patent claims, one or more patentees, one or more inventors, one or more authors, one or more patent assignments, one or more patent application assignments, one or more assignors, one or more assignees, one or more licensors, one or more licensees, one or more license agreements, one or more competitors, one or more infringers, one or more litigations, one or more litigation parties, one or more patent annuity payment due dates, one or more patent maintenance payment due dates, one or more bill of materials, sales data, one or more publications, one or more product trademarks, one or more trademark licenses, one or more service marks, one or more service mark licenses, one or more copyrights, one or more copyright licenses, one or more trade secrets, one or more trade secret licenses, know-how, one or more know-how licenses, one or more mergers, one or more acquisitions, one or more transfers of ownership, one or more corporate entities, and one or more transfers of licenses;
means for adding said identified patents to said at least one group; and
means for automatically processing at least one patent in said at least one group with consideration of non-patent information from said at least one second database.
134. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer program logic stored therein, said computer program logic comprising:
means for enabling a computer to access at least one first database of information representative of patents;
means for enabling a computer to access at least one second database of non-patent information;
means for enabling a computer to access at least one group associated with one or more of the following criteria: a product, a group of products, one or more technologies, one or more field of uses, one or more product applications, one or more processes, one or more product-by-processes, one or more prior art references, one or more prior art citations, one or more citing patents, frequency of prior art citations, one or more patent classes, one or more patent subclasses, one or more related patent applications, one or more related issued patents, one or more corresponding foreign patent applications, one or more corresponding foreign issued patents, one or more patent application filing dates, one or more patent issue dates, one or more patent claims, one or more pending patent application claims, one or more issued patent claims, one or more patentees, one or more inventors, one or more authors, one or more patent assignments, one or more patent application assignments, one or more assignors, one or more assignees, one or more licensors, one or more licensees, one or more license agreements, one or more competitors, one or more infringers, one or more litigations, one or more litigation parties, one or more patent annuity payment due dates, one or more patent maintenance payment due dates, one or more bill of materials, sales data, one or more publications, one or more product trademarks, one or more trademark licenses, one or more service marks, one or more service mark licenses, one or more copyrights, one or more copyright licenses, one or more trade secrets, one or more trade secret licenses, know-how, one or more know-how licenses, one or more mergers, one or more acquisitions, one or more transfers of ownership, one or more corporate entities, and one or more transfers of licenses;
means for enabling a computer to identify patents represented in said at least one first database that map to said one or more criteria: a product, a group of products, one or more technologies, one or more field of uses, one or more product applications, one or more processes, one or more product-by-processes, one or more prior art references, one or more prior art citations, one or more citing patents, frequency of prior art citations, one or more patent classes, one or more patent subclasses, one or more related patent applications, one or more related issued patents, one or more corresponding foreign patent applications, one or more corresponding foreign issued patents, one or more patent application filing dates, one or more patent issue dates, one or more patent claims, one or more pending patent application claims, one or more issued patent claims, one or more patentees, one or more inventors, one or more authors, one or more patent assignments, one or more patent application assignments, one or more assignors, one or more assignees, one or more licensors, one or more licensees, one or more license agreements, one or more competitors, one or more infringers, one or more litigations, one or more litigation parties, one or more patent annuity payment due dates, one or more patent maintenance payment due dates, one or more bill of materials, sales data, one or more publications, one or more product trademarks, one or more trademark licenses, one or more service marks, one or more service mark licenses, one or more copyrights, one or more copyright licenses, one or more trade secrets, one or more trade secret licenses, know-how, one or more know-how licenses, one or more mergers, one or more acquisitions, one or more transfers of ownership, one or more corporate entities, and one or more transfers of licenses;
means for enabling a computer to add said identified patents to said at least one group; and
means for enabling a computer to automatically process at least one patent in said at least one group with consideration of non-patent information from said at least one second database.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to tools for data processing, and more particularly related to tools for patent-centric and group-oriented data processing.
2. Related Art
Patents are becoming more and more important to a business's success, especially in today's global economy. Patents can be viewed as a new type of currency in this global economy because they grant the holder with a right to exclude others from making, using, or selling the patented technology. In some industries, product turnover is fairly rapid. However, core technology, product features, and markets change at a much slower rate. Accordingly, even in fast-moving industries, patents which cover core technology are very valuable at protecting a company's research and development investment for an extended period of time.
Patents are also valuable as revenue generators. In 1993, for example, the revenue generated from patents by U.S. companies was over $60 billion. Fred Warshofsky, The Patent Wars, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1994. These patent revenue dollars are rising each year.
Patents are further valuable because they collectively represent a vast technological database. Much of this database is only available as issued patents (i.e., it is not released in any other form). According to Larry Kahaner's book, Competitive Intelligence, Simon & Schuster, 1996, "More than 75 percent of the information contained in U.S. patents is never released anywhere else."
If corporations searched this database before developing and releasing new products they might be able to avoid costly patent infringement litigation. Often, however, corporations do not conduct such patent searches. One significant reason for this is the difficulty in identifying relevant patents, and the difficulty in analyzing patents. Computerized search tools are becoming available to the public, such as web sites on the Internet, that can be used to conduct patent searches. Many companies and practitioners are reluctant to use such tools, however, due to the concern that their highly sensitive patent searches will not be maintained in confidence when using such tools.
More and more corporations are recognizing the value of patents. The number of patents applied for and issued to U.S. companies is increasing every year, especially in fast moving industries such as computer software and biotechnology. Many international companies have also recognized the value of patents. In fact, foreign companies regularly rank among the leaders in issued U.S. patents.
Of course, not all patents are as valuable to the patent owner or patent licensees as others. Some owned or licensed patents provide little or no value to the corporate entity. These patents become a drain on corporate resources, both in obtaining the patents, paying maintenance fees, and paying license fees. It is difficult for corporations to assess the value of their patents because automated tools for patent analysis do not exist.
Yet, for all the heightened awareness being paid to patents in some quarters, patents remain one of the most underutilized assets in a company's portfolio. This is due, at least in significant part, to the fact that patent analysis, whether for purposes of licensing, infringement, enforcement, freedom to operate, technical research, product development, etc., is a very difficult, tedious, time consuming, and expensive task, particularly when performed with paper copies of patents.
Software providers have been slow in developing software tools for aiding in the patent analysis process. As a result, there are few automated tools for patent analysis currently available. There are software tools available for managing corporate patent prosecution and payment of maintenance fees, such as products from Master Data Corporation. The patent analysis capabilities of these tools are limited. These tools, for example, cannot be used to facilitate the analysis and development of business strategies to increase corporate shareholder value through the strategic and tactical use of patents.
A number of patent searching tools are available, such as the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Automated Patent System (APS), and the on-line search services offered by Lexis and Westlaw. Other providers of patent information and patent search tools include Derwent, MicroPatent, Questel, Corporate Intelligence, STN, IFI/Plenum, The Shadow Patent Office (EDS), IBM, and CAS. These tools are not analysis tools. Instead, they are search tools. These tools enable a user to identify patents that satisfy a specified key word search criteria. In essence, these tools provide the user with the ability to possibly find "the needle-in-the-haystack." However, these tools have limited, if any, automated functions to aid a user in analyzing the patents, whether the company's own patents or those of competitors, for the purpose of making tactical and strategic business decisions based on the patents.
SmartPatents Inc. (SPI) of Mountain View, Calif., provides electronic tools for analyzing patents. These tools, collectively called the SmartPatent Workbench, are very useful for analyzing patents. With the SmartPatent Workbench, a user can view the text and image of a patent, conduct text searches in the patent, copy and paste portions of the patent to other documents, build a case of patents, annotate the case and the patents in the case, import and export patents and cases, etc. The SmartPatent Workbench is commercially available from SPI, and is described in a number of publicly available documents, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,623,679 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,623,681, incorporated by reference herein.
The SmartPatent Workbench is a patent analysis tool. The SmartPatent Workbench is primarily designed to assist a user in working with a single patent or a small collection of patents at a time. However, there are many instances when it would be very beneficial to be able to automatically and simultaneously analyze, correlate, or otherwise process multiple patents.
For example, in some instances it would be beneficial to automatically analyze the inventorship of a collection of patents. More particularly, it would be beneficial to identify the persons who are named most frequently on a collection of patents. It would be very useful if this task could be performed automatically. However, no existing software tools can perform this task automatically.
For the most part, existing patent-related tools can process only the information contained in patents. (It is noted, however, that the SmartPatent Workbench has functions to annotate patents with any information, whether or not patent related, and has additional functions to search within annotations.) These tools do not have functions for correlating, analyzing, and otherwise processing patent-related information with non-patent related information, including but not limited to corporate operational data, financial information, production information, human resources information, and other types of corporate information. Such non-patent information is critically important when evaluating the full strategic and tactical value and applicability of any given patent, or developing a corporate patent business strategy for gaining competitive advantage and increasing shareholder value based on patents.
Consider, for example, FIG. 1. A typical corporation 102 includes a research and development (R&D) department 104, a finance department 112, a manufacturing department 108, and a legal department 116 (that includes a licensing department 122 and a patent department 124). In the course of performing their respective duties, these departments generate, collect, and maintain information, such as R&D information 106, financial information 114, manufacturing information 110 (such as bill of material information), licensing information 118, and patent information 120 (that includes the patents obtained by the company, and perhaps patents obtained by competitors).
A business analyst 126 may be assigned the job of evaluating the value of the corporation's patent portfolio (represented as part of the patent information 120). In order to fully and accurately analyze the value and applicability of the corporation's patent portfolio, the analyst 126 should ideally take into account non-patent information, such as R&D information 106, financial information 114, manufacturing information 110, and licensing information 118.
For example, a patent's value may be linked to whether it covers technology that the corporation is currently using, or that the corporation may use in the future. Thus, an analysis of the patent should include an analysis of and correlation with manufacturing information 110 and R&D information 106. Also, a patent's value may be linked to whether it has generated licensing revenue. Thus, an analysis of the patent should include an analysis of and correlation with licensing information 118. Further, a patent's value may be linked to the degree of success of the corporation's commercial products that correspond to the patent (i.e., the commercial embodiments of the patented technology). Thus, an analysis of the patent should include an analysis of and correlation with financial information 114.
The processing described above, however, is usually not done (or it is done in an ad hoc, unorganized, incomplete, inefficient, and/or ineffective manner) because it is difficult or, in many cases, impossible to manually collect, organize, correlate, and process all of the information pertinent to the patents under study. Often times, it is a difficult or even impossible task to simply identify the relevant patents. Accordingly, it would be very beneficial to have automated tools that automatically process patent-related information and non-patent related information for making corporate business decisions. Existing patent-related tools do not have this capability.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Briefly stated, the present invention is directed to a system, method, and computer program product for processing data. The present invention maintains first databases of patents, and second databases of non-patent information of interest to a corporate entity.
The present invention also maintains one or more groups. Each of the groups comprises any number of patents from the first databases. The present invention, upon receiving appropriate operator commands, automatically processes the patents in one or more of the groups in conjunction with non-patent information from the second databases. Accordingly, the present invention performs patent-centric and group-oriented processing of data.
A group can also include any number of non-patent documents.
The groups may be defined by the business practices of the corporation and could include groupings that are product based, person based, corporate entity based, or user-defined. Other types of groups also fall within the scope of the invention. For example, the invention supports temporary groups that are automatically generated in the course of the automatic processing performed by the invention.
The processing automatically performed by the invention relates to (but is not limited to) patent mapping, document mapping, document/patent citation (both forward and backward), document/patent aging, patent bracketing/clustering (both forward and backward), inventor patent count, inventor employment information, and finance. Other functions also fall within the scope of the invention.
Further features and advantages of the invention, as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the invention, are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
The present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 represents the generation and maintenance of documents in a conventional corporate entity;
FIG. 2 illustrates the document-centric and patent-centric operation of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an enterprise server according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 5 illustrates a potential deployment of the enterprise server of FIG. 4;
FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the databases of the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a network client (and potentially a web client) according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a web server according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 9 is a block diagram and a data transfer diagram illustrating the searching features of the present invention;
FIG. 10 is a block diagram of the analysis modules which form a part of the enterprise server of FIG. 4;
FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a computer useful for implementing components of the invention;
FIG. 12A illustrates the orientation of FIGS. 12B-12M relative to one another;
FIGS. 12B-12M illustrates the tables and attributes in the databases of FIG. 6 according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIGS. 13-17 illustrate example document databases;
FIG. 18 illustrates an example display format depicting the hierarchical organization of groups according to the present invention;
FIGS. 19-21 illustrates example group tables;
FIGS. 22 and 23A illustrate example bill of materials (BOM) data structures (also called BOM structures, or BOMs);
FIG. 23B, when considered in conjunction with FIG. 23A, illustrate the concept of shared groups;
FIGS. 24-26 illustrate example BOM groups;
FIGS. 27-31 illustrate example security tables;
FIG. 32 illustrates an example corporate organizational structure;
FIGS. 33-36 illustrate example corporate entity databases;
FIG. 37 illustrates an example person table;
FIG. 38 illustrates an example employee table;
FIG. 39 illustrates an example validated inventor table;
FIGS. 40-43, 44A and 44B illustrate example patents used to describe the patent bibliographic databases;
FIG. 45 is a dataflow diagram illustrating a generic extract and load operation;
FIG. 46 is a dataflow diagram illustrating an exemplary extract and load process for the patent bibliographic databases;
FIG. 47 is a dataflow diagram illustrating an exemplary extract and load process for the BOM databases;
FIG. 48 illustrates an alternative process for obtaining corporate BOM data;
FIG. 49 is a dataflow diagram representing an exemplary process for extract and load of the person databases and the employee databases;
FIG. 50 is a dataflow diagram illustrating an exemplary process for extract and load of the validated inventor table;
FIG. 51 is a dataflow diagram illustrating an exemplary process for extract and load of the corporate entity databases;
FIG. 52 is a dataflow diagram illustrating an exemplary process for extract and load of other corporate entity databases;
FIGS. 53-57 illustrate example user interface display formats pertinent to the searching features of the present invention;
FIG. 58 is an example user interface display format pertinent to display of group information;
FIGS. 59-60 are examples of patent mapping display formats;
FIGS. 61-65 are examples of patent citation report display formats;
FIGS. 66-70 are examples of patent aging display formats;
FIGS. 71-73 are examples of patent clustering/bracketing display formats;
FIGS. 74-77 are examples of inventor patent count display formats;
FIGS. 78-80 are examples of employment information display formats;
FIG. 81 illustrates the interaction between the enterprise server and a client;
FIG. 82 illustrates the interaction between the enterprise server and a network client;
FIG. 83 illustrates the interaction between the enterprise server and a web client;
FIG. 84 is a flowchart depicting the operation of the patent mapping module according to the embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 85 is a flowchart depicting the operation of the patent/document mapping module according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 86 is a flowchart depicting the operation of the patent citation module when conducting a backward patent citation search according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 87 is a flowchart depicting the operation of the patent citation module when performing a forward patent citation search according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIGS. 88A and 88B collectively illustrate a flowchart representing the operation of the patent aging module according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 89 is a flowchart representing the operation of the patent bracketing/clustering module when performing a backward patent bracketing/clustering function according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 90 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the patent bracketing/clustering module when performing a forward patent bracketing/clustering function according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 91 is a flowchart depicting the operation of the inventor patent count module according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 92 is a flowchart depicting the operation of the inventor employment information module according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 93 is a flowchart depicting the operation of the importing patent data module according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 94 is a flowchart depicting the operation of the exporting patent data module according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 95 is a flowchart representative of a generic extract and load process according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 96 is a flowchart of a extract and load process for the patent bibliographic databases;
FIG. 97 is a flowchart of a extract and load process for the BOM databases;
FIG. 98 is a flowchart of a extract and load process for an employee databases;
FIG. 99 is a flowchart of a extract and load process for the validated inventor databases;
FIG. 100 is an extract and load flowchart for the corporate entity databases;
FIG. 101 is a flowchart representative of the interaction between a client and the enterprise server;
FIG. 102 is a flowchart representative of a patent mapping and mining process;
FIG. 103 is a flowchart representative of a situation assessment process;
FIG. 104 is a flowchart representative of a competitive analysis process;
FIG. 105 is a flowchart representative of a clustering and/or bracketing process;
FIG. 106 is a flowchart representative of an inventor analysis process;
FIG. 107 is a flowchart representative of a financial analysis process;
FIG. 108 is a flowchart representative of a strategic planning process;
FIG. 109 is a flowchart representative of an example methodology process involving patent mapping and mining, situation assessment, and strategic planning process;
FIG. 110 is a flowchart depicting the operation of the security module;
FIG. 111 is an example display format showing the display of patent text in a first window and notes in a second window;
FIG. 112 is an example display format showing the display of patent text in a first window and patent image in a second window;
FIG. 113 illustrates a block diagram of the virtual patent system of the present invention;
FIG. 114 is a architecture block diagram of the network client (and in some embodiments the web client);
FIG. 115 is used to describe a generic group import function of the present invention;
FIG. 116 is an example user login screen shot;
FIGS. 117 and 118 represent an example console screen shot;
FIGS. 119 and 120 are screen shots for creating a new group;
FIGS. 121 and 122 are example screen shots for searching through the databases;
FIGS. 123 and 124 are example screen shots for displaying text and images of documents;
FIG. 125 is an example screen shot for creating a document note;
FIGS. 126 and 127 are example screen shots for editing group properties;
FIGS. 128 and 129 are example screen shots for invoking patent-centric and group-oriented functions;
FIG. 130 is an example screen shot for adding a document to a group;
FIG. 131 is an example screen shot for importing data;
FIG. 132 is an example screen shot for exporting data;
FIG. 133 is another example console screen shot;
FIG. 134 is an example screen shot for creating a group note;
FIGS. 135-137 illustrate example tools bars from the console screen display;
FIG. 138 illustrates a search hierarchy used to describe the searching algorithm according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 139 is a flowchart depicting the operation of the present invention when performing searches according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 140 illustrates an example Patent Search screen according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIGS. 141-143 illustrate example Search Result screens according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 144 illustrates an example display screen that shows bibliographic and abstract information on a document that is not stored in the repository;
FIGS. 145A, 145B, and 145C illustrate an example display screen that shows information on a document that is stored in the repository;
FIG. 146 illustrates an example display screen used to illustrate the hyperlinking capabilities of the present invention;
FIG. 147 illustrates an example "Patents In Repository" screen;
FIG. 148 illustrates an example display screen corresponding to the Skim Images function of the present invention;
FIG. 149 is a flowchart depicting a demand paging algorithm according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 150 illustrates a URL message format;
FIG. 151 illustrates the commands that are transferred between a browser in the web client and the Enterprise server;
FIG. 152 illustrates the interaction between the browser in a web client and the Enterprise server;
FIG. 153 illustrates a stacked folder icon used to represent shared groups;
FIGS. 154A and 154B illustrate an example console used to describe shared groups;
FIGS. 155A and 155B illustrate an example console used to describe temporary groups; and
FIG. 156 illustrates a group links tab that lists a group's links in the group hierarchy.
In the following text, reference is sometimes made to existing U.S. patents. Also, some of the figures reference or illustrate existing U.S. patents. For illustrative purposes, information from and/or about these patents has sometimes been modified or created in order to support the particular examples being discussed. Accordingly, the information provided herein about these existing U.S. patents should be considered to be fictional unless verified through comparison with copies of the actual U.S. patents that are available from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Table of Contents
Overview of the Invention
Components of the Invention
Customer Corporate Entity
Databases
Document Databases
Document Bibliographic Databases
Patent Bibliographic Databases
Other Document Bibliographic Databases
Notes Database
Groups Databases
Predefined Groups Databases
Bill of Materials (BOM) Databases
Corporate Entity Databases
Inventor Databases (and Employees and Person Databases)
User-Defined Group Databases
Financial Databases
Security Database
Enterprise Server
Document Storage and Retrieval Module
Notes Module
Searching Module
Automatic Searches Related to Groups
Searching Algorithm
Grouping Module
Analysis Modules
Server Administration Module
Server Configuration Module
Command Dispatch Module
Clients
Network Clients
Web Clients
Enterprise Server API (Application Programming Interface)
Commands Processed by the Server Administration Module 418
Commands Processed by the Document Storage and Retrieval Module 408
Commands Processed by the Grouping Module 412
Commands Processed by the Notes Module 414
Commands Processed by the Analysis Modules 416
Client/Server Interaction
Patent-Centric URL Commands
Translation
Client Architecture
Databases
Document Bibliographic Databases
Group Databases
User Defined Groups
Predefined Group Databases
Bill of Materials (BOM) Databases
Corporate Entity Databases
Inventor, Employee, and Person Databases
Financial Databases
Security Databases
Enterprise Server and Client Functional Modules
Patent Mapping Module
Patent Citation Module
Patent Aging Module
Patent Clustering and Bracketing Module
Financial Module
Inventor Patent Count Module
Inventor Employment Information Module
Exporting Patent Data Module
Importing Patent Data Module
Methodology Embodiments
Patent Mapping and Mining
Situation Assessment
Competitive Analysis
Clustering and/or Bracketing
Inventor Analysis
Financial Analysis
Strategic Planning
Integrated Methodology Embodiment
User Interface
User Login
Console
Console Tool Bars
Creating a New Group
Editing Group Properties
Shared Groups
Invoking Patent-Centric and Group-Oriented Analysis Functions
Adding Documents to a Group
Adding a Document Note
Adding a Group Note
Searching
Web Searching
Importing Data
Exporting Data
Conclusion
Overview of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a system, components of the system, a method, components of the method, and a computer program product for patent-centric and group-oriented data processing. Such processing includes, but is not limited to, reporting, analyzing, and planning.
The present invention is intended to aid a corporate entity in developing business-related strategies, plans, and actions. Accordingly, the present invention is also referred to herein as a business decision system and method.
FIG. 2 is a conceptual representation of the invention. The present invention processes patent information 204, which is herein defined to include (but not limited to) U.S. and non-U.S. patents (text and/or images) and post issuance documents (such as Certificates of Correction), and patent-related information, which includes information about patents (herein called patent bibliographic information). Accordingly, the processing performed by the invention is said to be "patent-centric" or "patent-specific."
More generally, the present invention processes any documents, some of which are related to patents, and others which are unrelated to patents. These documents are preferably of interest to a business entity, and include contracts, licenses, leases, notes, commercial papers, other legal and/or financial papers, etc., as well as patents.
For illustrative purposes, the invention is often described herein with respect to patents. However, it should be understood that the invention is also applicable to all types of documents, and the structures, functions, and operations described herein are applicable to all types of documents, whether patent or non-patent.
The present invention also processes other information, preferably business-related information, including (but not limited to) research and development (R&D) information 206, financial information 216, patent licensing information 214, manufacturing information 208, and other relevant business information 210 (which may, for example, include human resources information). This other information is generally called non-patent information (since it includes documents other than patents and may further include information from operational and non-operational corporate databases).
The present invention is adapted to maintain and process massive amounts of documents (several hundred thousand or more). It is often necessary to maintain and process this large number of documents in order to develop strategic, patent-related business plans for the customer.
According to the present invention, processing of the patent information 204 can be conducted either with or without consideration of any of the other information 206, 216, 214, 210, 208.
For example, a user 212 (who may be a business analyst) may be assigned the job of evaluating the value of the corporation's patent portfolio (represented as part of the patent information 204). In order to fully analyze the value and applicability of the corporation's patent portfolio, the user 212 must take into account other information, such as R&D information 206, financial information 216, manufacturing information 208, and licensing information 214, for both the corporation and its competitors.
For example, a patent's value may be linked to whether it covers technology that the corporation is currently using, or that the corporation may use in the future. For this and other purposes, the present invention includes functions for automatically analyzing the patent information 204 in conjunction with manufacturing information 208 and/or R&D information 206. Also, a patent's value may be linked to whether it has generated licensing revenue. For this and other purposes, the present invention includes functions for automatically analyzing the patent information 204 in conjunction with the licensing information 214. Further, a patent's value may be linked to the degree of success of the corporation's commercial products related to the patent (i.e., the commercial embodiments of the patented technology). For this and other purposes, the present invention includes functions for automatically analyzing the patent information 204 in conjunction with the financial information 216.
The invention could also be used to determine the value of a corporate entity's patent portfolio for purposes of a merger or acquisition. The invention could also be used in a merger or acquisition context to determine a corporate entity's business direction. For example, if Company A is interested in acquiring Company B, Company A could use the invention to categorize all of Company B's patents into groups. The nature of these groups would be an indication of the types of work that Company B is involved in. Other uses of the invention are described below. Further uses of the invention will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s) based on the discussion contained herein.
The present invention is group enabled. According to the present invention, a group is a data structure that includes a collection of patents. The patents in a group typically follow a common theme or characteristic (although this is not a mandatory requirement of groups). For example, a first group may include patents that map to a product being manufactured and sold by a company. A second group may include patents that map to a product or product feature being considered for future manufacture and sale by a company. A third group may include patents owned by a corporate entity. A fourth group may include patents each having a particular person named as an inventor. A fifth group may include patents owned by a competitor. A sixth group may include patents related to a research project. A seventh group may include licensed patents. An eighth group may include patents and/or non-patent documents related to a litigation in which the customer is involved or has an interest (such a group is also herein called a case). A ninth group may include patents and other documents arbitrarily selected by a customer.
The present invention is capable of automatically processing the patents in a group, or the patents in multiple groups (alternatively, the invention can automatically process a single patent). Accordingly, the present invention is said to support "group-oriented" data processing.
Being able to automatically process information on a group basis is a very important feature of the invention, and proves to be very valuable and useful. Consider the above example of FIG. 2, where the user 212 has the task of evaluating the value of the corporation's patent portfolio. Suppose that the corporation has two products on the market, Product A and Product B. Product A generated $10 million in revenue, and Product B generated $30 million in revenue. The corporation has 5 patents that map to Product A, and 3 patents that map to Product B. If the user 212 analyzes this data without regard to groups, then the user 212 will find that the corporation's revenue per patent is $5 million. That is, for every $5 million in revenue, the corporation obtains a patent. Suppose that a relevant industry benchmark indicates that a company should obtain a patent for every $6 million of revenue. According to this scenario, the user 212 will conclude that the corporation is potentially seeking greater patent protection than the industry benchmark with respect to its technology.
Consider, now, the scenario where the user 212 analyzes the data with regard to groups, in this case a first group composed of patents that map to Product A, and a second group composed of patents that map to Product B. The user 212 will find that corporation's revenue per patent is $2 million for the first group (i.e., patents that map to Product A), and $10 million for the second group (i.e., patents that map to Product B). According to this scenario, the user 212 will conclude that the corporation is potentially devoting too much of its patent-related resources with respect to its technology related to Product A (it is "overpatenting" technology related to Product A), and potentially devoting too little of its patent-related resources with respect to its technology related to Product B (it is "underpatenting" technology related to Product B).
In addition, an analysis of the patents relative to a product may indicate that the core features or technology of the product are not patented and, thus, could be freely and legally copied by a competitor. This could adversely affect the product's price floor and revenue stream. With this information in hand, the company could then take steps to more comprehensively patent its technology (or make a conscious and knowledgeable decision to not seek further patent protection). Without group-oriented processing of the patents related to the product, this information is unavailable. Without this information, the company is more likely to make unwise and costly business decisions.
As indicated by the above example, group-oriented processing yields information on a scale whose granularity is defined by the definition of the group. The information produced by group-oriented processing is specific to the patents in the group. Accordingly, as with the above example, group-oriented processing is often more useful and more illuminating than non-group-processing.
Also, the invention supports hierarchically structured groups. The invention, in performing a function requested by the operator, may identify a particular group. Such identification of this group may yield very useful information, as apparent from the above example. This group, however, may have a number of parent and/or child groups. The operator may be able to uncover additional useful data by viewing, analyzing, and/or processing these parent and child groups, either with or without the original group.
Accordingly, the invention supports and facilitates "data drilling" and/or "data mining."
As noted above, according to the present invention, processing of the patent information 204 is conducted with consideration of other information 206, 216, 214, 210, 209, called non-patent information. The process of assigning patents to groups is an example of processing patent information with non-patent information. This is the case, because groups are often created according to non-patent considerations. Accordingly, any subsequent processing of the patents in a group involve, by definition, non-patent considerations.
For example, the customer may create groups to represent its products. In this case, the groups are created according to the customer's production information. In another example, the customer may create groups to represent persons of interest. In this case, the groups are created according to HR (human resources) information. In another example, the customer may create groups to represent its competitors. In this case, the groups are created according to business information or practices. In another example, the customer may create groups based on its future products or feature requirement. In this case, the groups are created according to its R&D information.
All of these groups are created based on or in consideration of non-patent information, not patent information. Accordingly, any subsequent group processing of the patents contained in any of these groups represents, by definition, processing of the patent information 204 with consideration of, or in conjunction with, or based on non-patent information 206, 216, 214, 210, 208. This is the case, even if such subsequent group processing involves only, for example, patent bibliographic information (i.e., patent information), such as group processing based on patent issue dates or group processing based on patent references, since the groups being processed were created based on or in consideration of non-patent information, including non-patent information 206, 216, 214, 210, 208.
A group may also contain non-patent documents. In fact, a group may contain only non-patent documents. Accordingly, a group is more generally defined as a collection of documents (such as patent documents only, non-patent documents only, or a combination of patent and non-patent documents). The documents in a group typically follow a common theme or characteristic (although this is not a mandatory requirement of groups). Referring to FIG. 2, the invention processes document information 204 alone, or in conjunction with other information 206, 216, 214, 210, 208 (which may or may not be related to the documents). Accordingly, the processing performed by the present invention is more generally described as being document-centric and group-oriented.
Components of the Invention
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a system 302 according to an embodiment of the invention. The system 302 includes a plurality of databases 316 that store patent information and other information, such as R&D (research and development) information, financial information, licensing information, manufacturing information, HR (human resources) information, and any other information that may be pertinent to the analysis of the patent information. The terms "database" and "table" are used synonymously herein.
An enterprise server 314 accesses and processes the information in the databases 316. In particular, the enterprise server 314 includes modules that are capable of automatically accessing and processing the information in the databases 316 in a patent-centric (or document-centric) and group-oriented manner. These modules are also capable of automatically accessing and processing the information in the databases on a patent by patent basis ("one patent at a time"). Such processing includes, but is not limited to, reporting, analyzing, and planning.
The enterprise server 314 may be a single physical server, or may be a hierarchy of multiple servers 502, 504, 506, 508. An example of this multiple server embodiment is illustrated in FIG. 5. A given client 304, 306 may also connect to one or multiple servers. As is well known, in a client/server environment, some work is done by the client, some work is done by the server, and data flows between the client and the server.
The system 302 preferably includes two types of clients, network clients 306 and web clients 304. These clients 304, 306, pursuant to instructions from human operators or users (not shown), interact with the enterprise server 314 to access and process the information in the databases 316. For example, the clients 304, 306 may request that the enterprise server 314 retrieve certain information, or automatically analyze certain information. The enterprise server 314 performs the requested tasks, and sends the results to the requesting clients 304, 306. The clients 304, 306 present these results to their respective operators, and enable the operators to process the results.
Clients 304, 306 may also perform additional processing of data, such as creating a visualization of the data obtained from the enterprise server 314.
Generally speaking, the network clients 306 preferably communicate with the enterprise server 314 using the enterprise server 314's natural language, which is called the enterprise server API (described in detail below). Accordingly, the network clients 306 communicate directly with the enterprise server 314 via a communication network 312, which is preferably a network that uses the well known HTTP (hypertext transport) protocol. Other protocols could alternatively be used. This network 312 may be of any size, such as (but not limited to) a local area network or a wide area network (it can even be a global network).
The web clients 304 do not preferably utilize the enterprise server 314's natural language. Accordingly, the web clients 304 communicate with the enterprise server 314 via a web server 310, which translates between the language of the web clients 304 and the language of the enterprise server 314. This translation is described below.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the components of the present invention shown in FIG. 3 are implemented using well known computers, such as a computer 1102 shown in FIG. 11. The computer 1102 can be any commercially available and well known computer capable of performing the functions described herein, such as computers available from International Business Machines, Apple, Silicon Graphics Inc., Sun, HP, Dell, Compaq, Digital, Cray, etc.
The computer 1102 includes one or more processors (also called central processing units, or CPUs), such as a processor 1106. The processor 1106 is connected to a communication bus 1104. The computer 1102 also includes a main or primary memory 1108, preferably random access memory (RAM). The primary memory 1108 has stored therein control logic 1110 (computer software), and data 1112.
The computer 1102 also includes one or more secondary storage devices 1114. The secondary storage devices 1114 include, for example, a hard disk drive 1116 and/or a removable storage device or drive 1118. The removable storage drive 1118 represents a floppy disk drive, a magnetic tape drive, a compact disk drive, an optical storage device, tape backup, ZIP drive, JAZZ drive, etc.
The removable storage drive 1118 interacts with a removable storage unit 1120. As will be appreciated, the removable storage unit 1120 includes a computer usable or readable storage medium having stored therein computer software (control logic) and/or data. The removable storage drive 1118 reads from and/or writes to the removable storage unit 1120 in a well known manner.
Removable storage unit 1120, also called a program storage device or a computer program product, represents a floppy disk, magnetic tape, compact disk, optical storage disk, ZIP disk, JAZZ disk/tape, or any other computer data storage device. Program storage devices or computer program products also include any device in which computer programs can be stored, such as hard drives.
In an embodiment, the present invention is directed to computer program products or program storage devices having software that enables the computer 1102 to perform any combination of the functions described herein.
Computer programs (also called computer control logic) are stored in main memory 1108 and/or the secondary storage devices 1114. Such computer programs, when executed, enable the computer 1102 to perform the functions of the present invention as discussed herein. In particular, the computer programs, when executed, enable the processor 1106 to perform the functions of the present invention. Accordingly, such computer programs represent controllers of the computer 1102.
The modules of the invention discussed herein, such as the grouping module 412, the analysis modules 416, etc., preferably represent software executing in the computer 1102.
The computer 1102 also includes a display unit 1122, such as a computer monitor, and one or more input devices 1124, such as a keyboard, a mouse, other pointing devices (such as a light pen and trackball), etc.
The computer 1102 further includes a communication or network interface 1126. The network interface 1126 enables the computer 1102 to communicate over communication networks, such as networks 308 and 312, which preferably use the well known HTTP communication protocol.
The components of the invention (shown in FIG. 3) are described in greater detail below. It should be understood that any specific software, hardware, or operating system implementations described herein are provided for purposes of illustration, and not limitation. The invention can work with software, hardware, and operating system implementations other than those described herein. Any software, hardware, and operating system implementations suitable for performing the functions described herein can be used.
Customer Corporate Entity
Preferably, the system 302 is adapted for use by a particular customer. Typically, the customer is a corporate entity. Accordingly, the customer is also called herein the customer corporate entity.
It should be understood, however, that the customer can be any organization or individual, such as an academic institution, a research organization, a non-profit or for-profit organization, or any person. Generally, the customer is any entity having an interest in patents.
The customer is an entity (such as a company) that has arranged to have use of the system 302 (by purchasing, leasing, or renting the system 302, for example).
The databases 316 and data contained therein are specific to the customer. For example, the databases 316 may contain information on the patents that the customer owns and/or licensees, and information on the patents that the customer's competitors owns and/or licenses. Also, the databases 316 may contain the customer's and the customer's competitors' R&D information, financial information, licensing information, manufacturing information, and HR information.
Also, the methodology functions supported by the enterprise server 314 may be specialized or augmented to meet the needs of the customer.
Implementation and use of the present invention may involve a number of persons associated with the customer corporate entity, such as employees, consultants, associates, and persons retained by the customer, such as attorneys. When interacting with the invention, these people are called operators or users. Table 1 lists some of such persons and their respective responsibilities according to an embodiment of the invention. These persons may be involved in all aspects of the invention for the customer, or may be involved in only some phases of the invention for the customer, such as the extract and load of the databases 316. It should be noted that the set up and use of the invention may also involve other people with different knowledge, skills, and/or abilities.
In the discussion contained herein, reference is often made to a user or an operator associated with the customer. It should be understood that the terms "user" and "operator" are synonymous, and refer to one or more persons from Table 1.
TABLE 1
______________________________________
Role/Function
Responsibilities
______________________________________
Executive, PL, or
Ensure strategy meets short and long term
Division Managers
business goals and plans
Intellectual Property
Analysis of patents as related to mapping,
(IP) Attorneys
licensing, infringement, non-renewal, cross-
licensing etc.
Technical Personnel
Analysis of patents and how they relate to given
product functions and features. Also domain
R&D experts as needed for specific competitive
technology assessment
MIS personnel
Help in data extraction from operational systems
Marketing personnel
Product Strategy, Features, Target Markets,
Competitive Analysis
Business and
Economic implications, profit, loss, tax, market
Financial Analysts
share, etc.
______________________________________
Databases
FIG. 6 illustrates the databases 316. According to the present invention, the databases 316 store document information (that includes patent information) and information pertinent to the analysis of the document information.
FIG. 6 illustrates a particular embodiment of the databases 316, and also illustrates a particular embodiment of the types of tables that the databases 316 contain, and the attributes in the tables. It should be understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the particular database embodiment of FIG. 6. Instead, the invention is adapted and intended to cover other database structures and organizations that are capable of storing document information and information pertinent to the analysis of the document information. The particular information that is stored in the databases is implementation dependent and varies based on a number of factors, including the type of analysis that is desired, the specific needs of the customer, the type and content of the information that the customer maintains, etc.
The databases 316 of FIG. 6 are collectively called methodology databases, and the data within them are called methodology data, because they support the functions and features, or the methodology, of the present invention. These functions and features (generically called methodology functions and features) are described in sections below.
Many of the databases 316, such as the BOM databases 626, the inventor databases 628, and corporate entity databases 630, the financial databases 638, the person databases 632, and the employee databases 634, are initially loaded using information provided by the customer. Such information includes R&D (research and development) information, financial information, licensing information, manufacturing information, HR (human resources) information, and any other information that may be pertinent to the analysis of the customer's patents and other relevant documents. After initial loading, these databases 316 are updated as necessary to reflect changes in the customer's information.
Other information, such as information for the patent bibliographic databases 604 and the patent database 614, may be loaded using information provided by a third party provider, such as a third party provider that specializes in the provision of patent information in electronic form. One such third party provider is SmartPatents Inc. (SPI) of Mountain View, Calif. The patent bibliographic databases 604 may be periodically updated through a subscription service from such third party providers. Similarly, the patent database 614 may be augmented through as-needed orders to the third party providers. It should be understood that the present invention works equally well with data provided by any party as long as the data's format matches the formats of the patent bibliographic databases 604 and the patent database 614.
The databases 316 are described in greater detail below.
Document Databases
The document databases 612 preferably include electronic representations of documents of interest to the customer. The document databases 612 represent the customer's repository of documents, and are thus also called the customer's document repository. (The "repository" could alternatively represent all documents represented in the databases 316, whether represented in the document databases 612 or the bibliographic databases 602.)
For example, the patent database 614 includes electronic representations of U.S. and foreign patents of interest to the customer. These patents may be patents owned and/or licensed by the customer, patents owned and/or licensed by competitors of the customer, patents that the customer is considering acquiring, patents that, for whatever reason, the customer is studying, etc. The patent database 614 represents the customer's repository of patents, and is thus also called (in some embodiments) the customer's patent repository.
The patent database 614 preferably has stored therein an image file and a text file for each patent represented in the patent database 614, where the image file and the text file are representations of the patent. Details of an embodiment of the image file and the text file are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,623,681 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,623,679, which are both incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
The document databases 612 also include electronic representations of other documents of interest to the customer, such as depositions, pleadings, and prior art references. These documents are respectively stored in a deposition database 618, a pleadings database 616 (generally, pleadings are papers filed with a court), and a prior art database 620. Text and/or image representations of these documents may be stored. These documents may be pertinent to a patent litigation that the customer is involved in.
The documents in the document databases 612 may be text, images, graphics, audio, video, multimedia, and/or any other information representation that can be stored in electronic form.
It should be understood that the document databases 612 of FIG. 6 are shown for purposes of illustration, and not limitation. As mentioned above, the document databases 612 store electronic representations of documents that are of interest to the customer. Accordingly, the types of document databases 612 and the contents of the document databases 612 are, by definition, customer and implementation specific.
Document Bibliographic Databases
The document bibliographic databases 602 store information about documents (as opposed to the documents themselves). More particularly, the document bibliographic databases 602 store bibliographic information about documents.
Patent Bibliographic Databases
The patent bibliographic databases 604 store bibliographic data about U.S. and non-U.S. patents. Such patent bibliographic data includes, but is not limited to, the information on the front page of patents, such as: the patent number, the issue date, the inventors, the title, the assignee, the serial number, the filing date, the U.S. and international classifications, the fields of search, the references cited, the primary examiner, the assistant examiner, the attorney, the agent, the law firm, priority information, related application information, the number of claims, the number of drawing pages, the patent term, the expiration date, etc. The patent bibliographic databases 604 can also include one or more user defined fields that can store large amounts of data, such as 32 Kbytes or more of data.
Operators can extend the bibliographic databases 602 in patent-centric ways. For example, a "current licensee" field can be added to the patent bibliographic databases 604. This could be accomplished, for example, by defining one of the user defined fields to be a current licensee field.
In an embodiment of the invention, the patent bibliographic databases 604 store bibliographic information on all U.S. patents. In other embodiments of the invention, the patent bibliographic databases 604 store patent bibliographic information on a subset of all U.S. patents, such as all U.S. patents that are available in electronic form from the U.S. |
